CHENNAI, February 27: A marriage is often seen as one big leap into darkness. You never know what exactly you are letting yourself in for. No longer...The Department of Psychology, Madras University, will soon come out with a method that will give a ``good indication'' of whether two people are psychologically matched to share a lifetime with each other.Father Santiago, a Catholic priest, who started research on the subject about a year-and-half ago, has conducted a pilot study on 90 couples (45 married couples and 45 yet-to-be married couples). Generally bride or groom hunting overlooks one crucial aspect -- are the partners temperamentally and psychologically suited for each other?
Father Santiago has developed a questionnaire which evaluates aspects of personality, attitude, intelligence levels, goals and aspirations, values, interests, and food and clothing preferences. The responses will be studied to see to what extent these factors contribute to happiness and productivity in a marriage.
Thestudy will be conducted on 300 couples in Chennai, Tiruchi, Madurai, and Palayamkottai. A short orientation session will precede the procedure of filling up the forms the husband and wife are instructed to answer individually, without being influenced by each other. On the basis of this research, he will evolve a method for future couples who can judge who are the kind of people they are most comfortable with.
Head of the Department of Psychology, K V Kaliappan, who is guiding the research, rules out `hypocrisy' in responses. ``They are putting their future lives at risk they will not needlessly lie about themselves. There are baits like this: `At present most family problems are due to women's employment and their economic independence'. Father Santiago believes that, more than anything, the study will create an awareness about marriage and promote introspection on the possible psychological conflicts that can arise.
It is not humanly possible to score a perfect ten in a marriage but it is possible toensure that a husband and wife share core areas of commonness with this test. At best no spouse can turn around and say, ``If only I had known ... I would never have married you''.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
